Porsche, Lamborghini, Versace; buildings signed by luxury brands arrive in Brazil

Buildings signed by brands are already a reality in the national luxury real estate market. In São Paulo, in October, Gafisa pre-launched the Tonino Lamborghini Apartments San Paolo, in Jardins, with the family’s lifestyle brand famous for sports cars.

The brand is present in the lines of the façade, with an angled line, and in the decoration of the common areas, which will carry furniture and decoration items imported from Italy, with the company’s signature.

This project will have 17 units of 250 square meters and 96 studios from 21 to 34 square meters, and the apartments will also be able to be decorated with items from the brand — the studios will already be delivered with Tonino Lamborghini cabinets.

Despite sharing the same tower, larger studios and apartments will have separate living in the development: the first will be located up to the seventh floor and will have an entrance on Marília Street, while the larger ones are on the upper floors, with an entrance on Alameda Jaú.

Guilherme Benevides, executive director of Gafisa, says that having an associated brand helps to attract attention to the project. “We managed to have a much greater appreciation and exposure of the product than if we didn’t have the partnership”, he says. The square meter of the Tonino Lamborghini Apartments San Paolo, which is in pre-sale, costs around R$ 40 thousand.

Gafisa has the right to launch buildings with the Tonino Lamborghini brand with exclusivity for five years in São Paulo and two years in Rio, but it has not yet announced which development will be carried out in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.

In September, Cyrela launched Tree House and Garden House Porsche Consulting at Jardim Europa in Porto Alegre, with the company’s business consultancy.

The same developer is building the Milano Lifestyle by Versace Home in São Paulo, in partnership with the developer Lavvi, which takes the fashion brand to Moema.

Meanwhile, in December, the apartments of the Yatchhouse by Pininfarina, by Pasqualotto>, in Balneário Camboriú (SC) will begin to be delivered, which, in its red-framed façade, makes clear the partnership with the office that designs Ferrari vehicles. The construction company has two other projects under the same brand in the city, under construction, Vitra and La Città by Pininfarina.

The firm also signed the Cyrela by Pininfarina, delivered in 2018, and the Heritage, from 2020, at Itaim Bibi, in São Paulo.

This type of connection between international brands from other sectors and the real estate market has been going on for some years abroad. In Miami, in addition to Porsche, there are also Aston Martin and Fendi buildings, for example.

For the professor of the professional master’s degree in consumer behavior, at ESPM, Suzane Strehlau, living in an enterprise that bears the name of a brand should not be considered something strange by those who are already used to using these companies’ logos in their daily lives. , in clothes and other objects.

“If they feel that way, they will also find it interesting in the building,” he says.

However, for the relationship between the project and the brand to make sense, there needs to be more than just a sign with the brand’s logo at the entrance. Consumers and residents need to capture the essence of the company in the project.

“The idea is that the brand image is transmitted in the building, the consumer will notice this in the decoration, in the service, in addition to the style [do empreendimento]”, it says.

Also because, recalls Strehlau, in everyday life, the name of a building is rarely mentioned, and the address serves as a point of reference.

A partnership of this type means double work for the developer, says Alcino Pasqualotto Neto, president of the Santa Catarina construction company, and also makes the project more expensive. At the Yatchhouse, which has 6% of the 264 units for sale, with values ​​between BRL 6 million and BRL 8 million and with an area of ​​265 m², it was necessary to produce concrete pumps and specific piping for the work, and the façade of the project, composed of two towers, it was all covered with a double layer of glass, to provide thermal and acoustic comfort.

The angular, red structure at the base of the towers is covered with fiberglass used to build boats, and was ordered from a ship manufacturer, whereas the usual would be to use aluminum plates, says Neto. “It makes the project a lot more expensive, because the difference in the materials used is very big”, he says.

The towers have 81 floors — the development will be the tallest residential building in Brazil when it opens.

For Neto, the partnership with the Italian office managed to add automobile design to civil construction, conveying desire and a sense of speed for the work.

Differentiation and the attempt to surprise the buyer is what developers who venture into these partnerships seek.

Piero Sevilla, director of development and business at Cyrela, says that they started making this kind of approach to international brands in 2012, when they noticed the trend abroad. In addition to Pininfarina, Versace and Porsche Consulting, they have a line of buildings with Yoo, the office of French designer Philippe Starck.

“This partnership involved closing a Cyrela team at their office, in London, for four months, to show the dynamics of Brazil”, he says.

The partner brand’s touch appears in different ways in each project, and varies according to the image of each company. At Milano Lifestyle by Versace Home, for example, it is clear in the decoration of the common areas, with lots of gold, marble and the use of the Medusa image, symbol of the Italian brand.

Strehlau explains that the proximity between the building and a well-known brand can attract two types of consumers: those who already consume the brand and identify with its values ​​and those who aspire to belong to the universe it represents.

For the project to be successful, it is important that the brand has low rejection and an established image in the luxury market.

“In any society, we usually eat a kilo of salt together to understand the relationship, we have the criterion of being a brand that does not have the risk of misalignment with our values”, says Sevilla. After all, the building will exist for decades.

A development of this type may also require extra care on the part of residents to preserve the original features of the decoration and facade.

“It doesn’t make sense for a guy who paid for a specific design after wanting to change the salon, there is a desire by the brand that the buildings are preserved as they were designed,” says Cyrela’s development director.

According to him, the company is closing a partnership with two more brands, which should be announced in 2022.

On the brand’s side, there must be an advantage in this partnership with the real estate market. In addition to being remunerated for their participation in the project, the brand can gain by getting closer to its target audience.

For this, many already have divisions specialized in prospecting this type of business and coordinating partnerships.

“Luxury brands have been showing for some years the trend of extending the brand, collaborating with other products, such as spas and hotels,” says Strehlau. The teacher emphasizes that these brands are also very careful when choosing partners, because problems in the project can damage their image.

Unlike what happens in a store, in the real estate market, the brand’s relationship with the consumer is not restricted to the moments of purchase.

“Brands have realized that, by being in a real estate project, they are actually able to penetrate the customer’s life, they will dialogue with that person throughout their life,” says Benevides.